Presses



United States Patent James Shann Kingston-upon-Hull, England Inventor:

Application No.: 719,016

Filed: April 5, 1968 Patented: Aug. 4, 1970 Assignee: Rose Downs 8: Thompson Limited Kingston-upon-Hull, England a British Company Priority: April 6, 1967 1 Great Britain,

PRESSES 11 Claims, Drawing Figs.

U.S. Cl. 100/125, 100/116,100/218, 100/223 Int. Cl 1330b 9/02, B30b 15/02 Field of Search 100/125,

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 5/1883 Barnes 100/1)Z5 11/1909 Moste1ler.. 100/125 R 11/1922 Hieber 100/223XR 10/1951 Smith 100/125XR 4/1955 Mil1gard.... 100/116XR 2/1965 Hansen 100/1 16XR 4/1965 Luthi, et a1. 100/223 Primary Examiner Peter Feldman Attorneys Holcombe, Wetherill and Brisebois ABSTRACT: The invention is concerned with de-liquefying presses where a permeable container or cage moves to and from a pressing station where the cage contents are pressed. The cage is resiliently suspended so that it is normally spaced vertically from a fixed abutment; when pressing occurs, the cage is forced downwardly by the pressing thrust into contact with the abutment which then receives the thrust.

Patented Aug. 4, 1970 Sheet N R m C N T R NS 0 W5 T mE M m Patented Aug; 4, 197

Sheet BY A A Patentd Aug. 4,

Sheet a N u m m m km Wm Wm M w M m H m Patented Aug. 4, 1970 I 3,522,768

INVENTOR JAnss S w: u a

ATTORNEYS U.S. PATENT 3,522,768 PRESSES This invention relates to presses and is more particularly concerned with ram-type de-liquefying presses operable on a semi-continuous basis. Thus, the invention may be applied to a three-station ram press in which three containers are supported to move together about a vertical axis consecutively between a filling station, a pressing station and an ejection station.

According to the present invention, a de-liquefying press has a container for material to be pressed movable between a first station and a pressing station or stations, downwardly acting means at the pressing station for pressing material in the container when disposed at that station, each container being resiliently suspended so as to be capable of limited vertical movement against a resilient bias, and a fixed plate at the pressing station located beneath the container and normally spaced from the container, but engaged by the container under the downward thrust applied by the downward acting means. By arranging for the containers to be normally clear of the fixed plate and to engage it only when stationary at the pressing station, the resistance to movement of the container is reduced and the power required to move the container between the stations is correspondingly diminished.

Preferably there are three containers each carried by a rotary mounting arranged to bring each container in turn to a filling station, a pressing station and an ejection station; each container is resiliently suspended from the rotary mounting and there is a fixed plate below the path of the containers at the pressing and ejection stations.

Each container may have a removable bottom closure plate and, at the ejection station, there may be means for automatically removing this plate to permit ejection of the material contained in the container.

The invention will be more readily understood by way of example from the following description of a three-station ram press in accordance therewith, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which:-

FIGURE 1 and 2 are respectively a side view and a plan view of the press,

FIGURE 3 is a section on the line Ill-III of FIGURE 4,

FIGURE 4 is a section on the line lV-IV of FIGURE 3,

FIGURE 5 is a plan view of a modified form of container floor plate, and

FIGURE 6 is a section on the line VI-VI ofFIGURE 5.

Referring to the drawings, the press has a fixed base plate 12 and a top plate 13, the latter being mounted from the former by pillars 14. The top plate 13 carries the cylinder 15 of the pressing ram, the pressing piston of which is indicated at 16, and the cylinder 17 of an ejector ram, the ejection piston of which is indicated at 18.

A shaft 20 is mounted in bearings 21, 22 secured to the top and bottom plates l3, 12, respectively. This shaft 20 has secured to it a turntable 24, resiliently supporting three containers or cages 25. As best shown in FIGURE 3, which shows the container or cage 25 at the ejection station, each container has a perforated wall 26 and is mounted by means of three vertical rods 27 and springs 28 located in appropriate recesses in the turntable 24 and a superimposed reinforcing plate 30. Each spring 28 is interposed between the bottom of its recess and a nut 31 at the upper extremity of the rod 27, so that the weight of the container and its contents is carried through the springs 28 to the turntable 24. Instead of the helical springs 28 shown in the drawings, disc springs or rubber or like sleeves may be employed, particularly in large installations, where helical springs become excessively bulky.

A fixed circular plate 32 is mounted from the bottom plate 12 by a number of rigid members, one of which is constituted by a tube 33 at the ejection station, bolted to the plates 12, 32 and aligned with openings 34, 35 in those plates. The plate 32 lies immediately beneath the path of the containers 25 and, normally, when the container is filled with material, the strength of the springs 28 are such that the container is held slightly above the upper surface of the plate 32.

Each container 25 is closed by a sliding floor plate shown at 36 in FIGURE 3 in its closed position, it being understood that the floor 36 is mounted to slide radially of the shaft 20. At the ejection station, the opening 35 in the plate 32 is closed by a further plate 37, which is also arranged for radial sliding movement and which is actuated by a piston and cylinder 38 through links 40. The plate 37 carries two upstanding pins 41 separated by the radial length of the floor 36; these pins engage the sides of the floor 36 and cause it to be moved radially with the plate 37.

The turntable 24 with the three containers 25 is indexed round by an indexing piston and cylinder 42 pivoted to a sleeve 43 on a shaft 44 journalled between plates 12 and 32. Sleeve 43 is coupled to shaft 44 through a free-wheel device which causes the shaft to be driven only when the sleeve is turned clockwise as viewed in FIGURE 2. Shaft 44 carries a gear wheel 45 (FIGURE 1) meshing with a further gear wheel 46 splined on the shaft 20 (FIGURE 3). Each inward stroke of the piston 42 drives the turntable 24 counter-clockwise through in order to move the containers 25 successively between the three stations. The turntable is accurately positioned at the three stations and held against movement during retraction of piston 42 by an index member 47 (FIGURE 2) operated by a piston and cylinder 48 and received in any of three index openings 50 in the turntable 24.

In operation, each container 25, with its floor 36 in its closed position, is filled at the filling station (25A in FIGURE 4). After the next indexing movement of the turntable 24, that container is located at the pressing station indicated at 258; here, the pressing cylinder 15 is operated to press the material and to drive the expelled liquid through the perforated wall 26. At the next indexing movement, the container is moved to the ejection station 25C; as it moves into the ejection position, the floor 36 passes circumferentially between the pins 41 on the retractable plate 37 which at this time is in the position closing the opening 35. When the container has reached the ejection station 25C, the piston and cylinder 38 are operated to withdraw plate 37 from the position shown in FIGURE 3 and to withdraw simultaneously the floor 36 so that the pressed material within the container 25 can be ejected by the ejection piston 18 through the opening 35, the tube 33 and the opening 34. Thereafter, the piston and cylinder 38 is again operated to return the plates 37 and the floors 36 to their respective closed positions and then the turntable 24 is in dexed to bring the now empty container 25 back to the feed station 25A.

During the pressing and ejection operations, the force applied to the material by the pistons 16, 18 causes the base of the container 25 to be lowered against the action of the springs 28 until it rests on the fixed plate 32, which then takes the thrust applied by those pistons. At other times, the containers 25 are clear of the fixed plate 32, being suspended entirely from the turntable 24 by the springs 28.

In order to improve the drainage of liquid from the containers 25 during the pressing operation, the floor 36 of each container or cage 25 may be perforated or slotted, the size of the perforations or slots being chosen according to the material being pressed to permit passage of the expressed liquid and to prevent substantial extrusion of the material being pressed. FIGURES 5 and 6 illustrate a slotted floor, the slots 51 extending lengthwise of the floor, i.e. parallel to the direction of sliding movement. The floor plate is first machined to form wide slots 52 on the underside, these slots extending the full length of the floor. Then the relatively narrow slots 51 are machined over only the central portion of the floor as indicated in FIGURE 5. The slots 51 are maintained free from obstruction by the wiping action on sliding of the door.

Sticking of the floor may be eased by breaking the adhesion of the contents of the container prior to, and possibly during, the withdrawal movement. This may be effected for example by a pneumatically operated knocking device carried by the plate 37 and applying light impacts to the underside of floor 36. Alternatively or additionally, the upper surface of the floor 36 may be given a coating of a non-stick silicone material.

Although in the drawings, a single pressing station is shown, the press may have two or more pressing stations, where necessary. in particular, with some materials to be pressed, the pressing operation may take longer than the operations of filling and ejection and a faster cycling time may be achieved by having two pressing stations at each of which a pressing operation of shorter duration is performed.

lclaim:

l. A de-liquefying press comprising a rotary mounting rotatable about a vertical axis, at least three containers each for receiving material to be deliquefied, resilient means for resiliently suspending each of the containers independently on the rotary mounting, whereby the containers are capable of moving in turn to a filling station, a pressing station and an ejection station, downwardly acting means at the pressing and ejection stations for pressing and ejecting material in a container, and abutment means arranged below the containers at the pressing and ejection stations with the abutment means at said ejection station including an opening for the passage of material ejected from the containers, the arrangement being such that the containers are normally spaced above the abutment means, but are engaged by said abutment means which restrains the thrust thereof, when the downwardly acting means applies downward thrust to the container.

2. A de-liquefying press according to claim 1 in which the resilient means comprise, for each container, a plurality of springs mounted between the rotary mounting and the container.

3. A de-liquefying press according to claim 1 in which each container is mounted on rods, the upper ends of which are supported by the rotary mounting through the resilient means.

4. A de-liquefying press according to claim 1 in which each container .has a floor arranged to be slidably removed at the ejection station.

5. A de-liquefying press according to claim 4 in which the floor is slotted so as to pennit the passage of liquid but to prevent the passage of the solid material being pressed.

6. A de-liquefying press according to claim 4 in which the abutment means takes the abutment means takes the form of a fixed plate with an opening at the ejection station aligned with the container bottom at theat station.

7. A de-liquefying press according to claim 6 in which the fixed plate extends under the entire path of the containers.

8. A de-liquefying press according to claim 6 in which the fixed plate has a sliding closure plate for the opening therein and means for coupling the sliding floor of a container disposed at the ejection station with the closure plate for simultaneous actuation.

9. A dc-liquefying press according to claim 8 in which the coupling means comprise a pair of upstanding pins on the closure plate arranged to engage opposite edges of the container floor on sliding operation, the pins being so disposed that, on rotary movement of a container towards or away from the ejection station, the floor passes between the pins.

10. A de-liquefying press according to claim 1 in which the filling, pressing and ejection stations are equally spaced around the rotary mounting, and there are means for rotating the rotary mounting through the angular distance between two stations.

11. A de-liquefying press according to claim 10, in which there are indexing means for assuring the correct angular disposition of the rotary mounting with respect to the stations. 

